Exploring the redneck culture in all its in-your-face glory, this richly illustrated book is a cross between Studs Terkel and White Trash Cooking. From Velveeta Fudge to values (virtually all expressed in the lyrics of country music songs) to snake-handling ministers and gun mania, Redneck Heaven captures the redneck spirit in all its exuberance. 80 photos.

What does it mean to be white? This remains the question at large in the continued effort to examine how white racial identity is constructed and how systems of white privilege operate in everyday life. White Out brings together the original work of leading scholars across the disciplines of sociology, philosophy, history, and anthropology to give readers an important and cutting-edge study of "whiteness".

This book is a sarcastic look at people who are of the off road crowd and my own personal expeireinces in Alaska with friends and family. There's a description of just about every kind of person who hangs around or has hung around the muddin and offroad scene, from the Idiot to the Go or Blow. yah, i even make fun of my own dumn ass in it haha. Yah there's cussin in it, so I oppologize to those of you who were raised with virgin eyes and ears. Read it anyway, you just might find yourself laughing. Oh, and yes i realize a lot of the spelling is incorrect. Most of this book is written in what i like to call "redneckaneese". Politically incorrect? yah it is, oh well. I'm just a good ol boy and i wrote it for guys and gals like myself to get a laugh, lord knows we all need that as crappy as things are these days.Hope ya'll enjoy it.

In the earliest years of the war in Afghanistan, after the Taliban fell to an American-led coalition, the fight there appeared to be a triumph—a “good war” in comparison to the debacle in Iraq. Now, thirteen years after it began, it has turned into the longest war in U.S. history, as well as the most profligate; at an estimated $4 to $6 trillion, the final price tag for America’s part in the war in Afghanistan will be higher than that of World War II. And with thousands of coalition servicemen and Afghan civilians having paid for the war with their lives or limbs, the true cost of this futile expedition may never be properly calculated. As we wind down our combat operations in Afghanistan and slouch toward withdrawal, the time is right for a full accounting of what went wrong. In The Good War, acclaimed author and war correspondent Jack Fairweather goes beyond the battlefield to explore the righteous intentions and stunning hubris that brought the United States and its allies to the verge of defeat in this far-flung theater. Drawing on hundreds of interviews, troves of previously untapped material from Afghan government archives, and months of experience living and reporting in Afghanistan, Fairweather traces the course of the conflict from its inception following the terrorist attacks of 9/11 to its steady drawdown during President Obama’s second term, in the process offering a bold reassessment of the war. He describes how the Bush administration came within a hair’s breadth of making peace with the Taliban in 2002. He shows how Afghan opium could have rebuilt the country rather than destroying it. And he provides the most intimate portrait yet of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, arguing that Karzai’s gravest mistake was giving in not to warlords but rather to the international community, which has consistently prevented him from taking the necessary steps to help Afghans seize their own future. A timely lesson in the perils of nation-building and a sobering reminder of the limits of American power, The Good War leads readers from the White House situation room to Afghan military outposts, from warlords’ palaces to insurgents’ dens, to explain how the US and our allies might have salvaged the Afghan campaign—and how we might rethink other “good” wars in the future.

Carolyn Brown "will keep you reading until the very last page" (Romantic Times) with her trademark sass, colorful characters, and rollicking sense of humor Now, get Carolyn Brown's "Lucky" trilogy for one low price: Lucky in Love, Getting Lucky, and One Lucky Cowboy. "This is not your mother's western romance!...Brown's plot-driven cowboy romance...will earn a spot on your keeper shelf."-The Romantic Times, 4 Stars "Carolyn Brown's cowboys always jump off the page and are beyond yummy, sexy and daring."-Fresh Fiction About the Books in This Boxed Set 1. Lucky in Love Hunky rancher Beau "Lucky" Luckadeau has always been lucky at everything-except love. Years later, he's still haunted by a steamy night with a mysterious beauty at his cousin's wedding. She disappeared before he woke up with the hangover of his life, and he's been looking for her ever since. Now Milli Torres has come to southern Oklahoma to help with the family ranch. Great God Almighty, what in the hell is she going to do if Lucky recognizes her? 2. Getting Lucky Jane Day is on the run from a her crazy ex-fiancé. In Wichita Falls, Texas, she meets Nellie Luckadeau, a spitfire of an old lady who desperately needs help on her ranch. But Nellie's gorgeous grandson "Lucky Slade" is determined not to let some con artist fleece his granny. When he can't convince Jane to leave, he pours on the charm to make her spill what she's up to. She's happy to play along, but she's not going to let this hot cowboy run her off when all she needs is a lucky break... 3. One Lucky Cowboy All Julie Donovan wants in Saint Jo, Texas, is a quiet life for her and her daughter, Annie. But when a sexy cowboy walks into her classroom with a daughter who looks like Annie's twin, suddenly the whole town is talking. Devoted single dad Griffin Luckadeau will do anything to protect his own, and he thinks Julie is scheming to steal his ranch. But when the dust settles, these two Texas hotheads may have found something worth fighting for...

Featuring new critical essays by scholars from Europe, South America, and the United States, At Home and Abroad presents a wide-ranging look at how whiteness-defined in terms of race or ethnicity-forms a category toward which people strive in order to gain power and privilege. Collectively these pieces treat global spaces whose nation building and identity formation have turned on biological and genealogical exigencies to whiten themselves. Drawing upon racialized, national practices implemented prior to and during the twentieth century, each of the essays enlists literature or performance to reflect the sociopolitical imperatives that secured whiteness in the respective locations they study. They range from examinations of whiteness in the literature of Appalachia and contemporary Argentinean poetry to an analysis of performances memorializing the colonial experience in Italy and an exploration into the white rap music of Eminem and contemporary multiracial passing. As the contributors show, literary and performance representations have the power to chronicle histories that reflect the behaviors and lived realities of our selves. Whether whiteness, in addition to its physical manifestation, presents itself as identity, symbol, racism, culture, social formation, political imposition, legal imposition, or pathology, it has been outed into the visible, even in national spaces where the term “whiteness” has yet to be translated and entered into the official lexicon. The ten essays collected here provide powerful insights into where and how the race for biological and genealogical whiteness persists in various geopolitical realms and the ways in which Nordic whites, as well as ethnic whites and nonwhites, resecure its ascendance. La Vinia Delois Jennings is professor of English at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Her recent critical study Toni Morrison and the Idea of Africa won the 2008 Toni Morrison Society Prize for Best Single-Authored Book on the Nobel laureate and Pulitzer-Prize winning author.

Private eye Ivan Monk takes on his most personal mystery to date—and chases answers deep into America’s haunted past. Long ago, Marshall Spears was a hero of the ballpark. In a time when baseball—and the nation—was segregated, he played in the vaunted Negro Leagues. Decades later, Old Man Spears is living out his days as a fixture in a barbershop in South Central. One afternoon, PI Ivan Monk—a shop regular—learns that Spears’s former teammate was Kennesaw Riles. From family lore, Monk knows Riles is his cousin who was ostracized for the damning testimony he gave during a controversial murder trial in the ’60s—testimony that put a firebrand civil rights leader behind bars. Before Monk can hear more, Old Man Spears drops dead while listening to a ballgame on the radio. Even stranger, the long missing Riles shows up at the Old Man’s funeral services, and dies soon after. Monk knows the timing is not a coincidence. He follows the mystery to the Mississippi Delta. There, he unravels the truth behind the murder of two civil rights era activists. Eventually Monk zeroes in on a group of shadowy Mississippi businessmen-turned-philanthropists who may not have reformed their ways as they claim. Far from Los Angeles, the tenacious private eye confronts his own family history as well as a brand of hatred thought to have died with Jim Crow.

HE HARDLY KNEW HER, BUT HE ALREADY WANTED TO BE A BETTER MAN…. She made rugged contractor Justin West believe he existed only to protect those more fragile than himself. And that, more than anything, told him Bridget Daisy was trouble. Justin had experienced enough heartache to make him unwilling to settle down anytime soon. And the lovely librarian exemplified commitment—from her copper-colored bun to her big orange cat, who saw no room for another male in Bridget's life. Justin couldn't agree more. So he vowed to stop thinking of her eyes, and lips and his hands in her hair. He would be a perfect gentleman. There was only one problem. He had never been a gentleman.

In this swamp of murder and deceit, no one is safe! When the twentieth century was new, China Rose Fish Camp was a popular vacation spot for folks looking for a place to slow down. But these days the only regular visitors are the mosquitoes and gators–especially the fifteen-foot bull gator the locals call Big Ben. When Harry Pitts--the owner of China Rose--is found beaten to death, Florida PI Addie Gorsky takes on the case. Though the cops believe the bloody scene suggests a random act of violence, Addie believes the crime is connected to the disappearance of Harry's daughter eleven years ago at China Rose. While Addie knows that all murders begin in the past, even she is surprised at how deep the roots of Harry’s violent murder go–all the way back to the days of old Florida, to the time of wily pirates and proud conquistadors, and the trove of treasure that legend claims is still buried in this backwater. Addie dives headfirst into the wild heart of China Rose, surrounded by grinning gators, killer bees and gaping cottonmouths. But these predators pale in comparison to the cunning two-legged killer Addie is hunting…and who soon begins hunting her.

This is the story of Baxter McPherson, the latest in a line of exceptional children born into the McPherson family. Unlike normal people, Baxter is able to use 99 percent of his brain. But even with his superior intelligence, Baxter is unable to understand why he is the way he is. Baxter just wants to be normal, yet he is anything but. His friends taunt him and call him Superman, exploiting his brilliance and good nature for their own needs. Baxter is lonely, but with his mothers guidance, he comes to accept and even appreciate his special abilities as he grows. As a young man, he finds love at Harvard University, but it seems that fate has other plans. Alone once more, he leaves Harvard in search of his lifes purpose. On his journeys, he interacts with all echelons of society: the rich and the poor; the good and the bad; the humble and the supersized, self-important egomaniacs. Each new encounter shapes him in its own way. In response to his experiences and to find a channel through which he can reward the best of humanity, Baxter forms the compassionate Butterfly Organization. But as surely as there is good in the world, there is also eviland evil is also on the path to recruit the best and brightest. A battle is inevitable, and Baxter must use all of his resources to survive. Is he clever enough to defeat the evil within his own organization?